Women's Centres have become a key part of the influence of the Second Wave of Feminism. Women’s Centres were first established in Dunedin and Christchurch in 1974 and in Auckland, Wellington, Wairoa and New Plymouth in 1975. Apart from Wairoa and Wellington, women’s liberation groups established them all. As early as 1973 Auckland Women’s Liberation group and Women for Equality were “looking for suitable accommodation for a centre for feminist activities”, but it was not until 1975 that a Women’s Centre was established in Auckland. The Christchurch Centre was set up in 1974 as a joint refuge and women’s centre by a coalition of three Christchurch feminist groups, Radical Feminists, University Feminists. The idea for the joint refuge/women’s centre occurred as a result of a visit by an English feminist who had been involved in women’s aid projects in the United Kingdom. The New Plymouth Women’s Action Group set up the Women’s Centre in 1975 in order to develop a women-only space in the city. Women’s centres were set up to provide a primary location for the development of feminist activities and a place for feminists to meet. This is reflected in the aims of the Auckland Women’s Centre, which were “1) to bring together women interested in feminism; 2) to provide a meeting place for feminist groups; 3) to provide a voice for feminism in Auckland”. A report in October 1975 suggested that the Auckland Women’s Centre was achieving these aims when they reported having 50 women attend their last meeting, 275 women on the mailing list as well the following feminist groups meeting at the centre; “Halfway House, Women’s National Abortion Action Campaign (WONAAC), Rape Crisis Centre and two consciousness- raising groups”. They reported that the Rape Crisis group and critical response groups had been set up by members of the Centre. There were also a feminist political action group and feminist discussion group operating from the Centre during 1975, as well as a library being developed. The Centre also provided information and referrals for women in the local area. The founding committee identified the Centre as “a place for women fulfilling the functions of a community centre, providing a meeting place, legal, accommodation and employment information, and counseling if necessary”. The Christchurch Centre was described as “primarily a refuge and referral centre”, providing: “advice on abortion, contraception, law, sympathetic doctors, or any other problem affecting women”, along with providing accommodation, and a place for group meetings and “sometimes all-female parties that allow the group to meet and individuals to get to know each other”.
The first of the women’s self-help health groups were formed. Lorraine Rothman, a well-known US feminist health activist toured New Zealand in 1974. This tour had been organised by the Auckland based group called Organisation for Women’s Health. Rothman encouraged women to get to know their own bodies and to treat themselves for minor health problems. Sandra Coney suggests that the early groups tended to focus on addressing the ill- effects of the pill and experimenting with yoghurt and other homemade remedies to heal thrush. Within the pages of various women’s liberation movement newsletters there are scattered references to the development of largely informal women’s self-help groups following Rothman’s tour in Dunedin, Palmerston North and Wellington. A self- help health group attempted to set up the first women’s health centre in Wellington. Initially, violence against women was not a central focus of the women’s movement groups. The focus on violence emerged as women became aware of overseas refuges and rape crisis groups, the development of radical feminist theorising of violence against women as a means of social control and the recognition of rape and domestic violence as common experiences raised in CR groups. In 1974, two ‘speak-outs’ were organised by Auckland Women’s Liberation and were attended by many women who shared their experiences of health, sexuality and violence. The Auckland Women's Movement also provided advice on safety issues to make informed decisions on their options; such as the photo above. They also had community education programmes on violence and the effects associated with violence.
The 1974 August Broadsheet focused on the issue of violence for women. Sandi Hall critiqued the view that domestic violence was predominantly a working-class issue, and emphasised inequality in marriage as contributing to domestic violence. She described the inadequate responses of charity agencies, church groups and police in failing to protect women and for encouraging women to remain in violent situations. She also criticised women’s liberation groups for “not [being] terribly helpful in these situations, urging as we do that women learn to defend themselves, and offering succour to the wounded, but as yet unable to do more than point out the need for social change to eradicate the problem”. In the same issue, a number of articles examined the issue of rape. In one of these articles, Sandra Coney challenged many of the common rape myths and reiterated the way in which all women were vulnerable to being raped. She concluded that this: aspect of discrimination against women [was] hardly touched on yet by New Zealand feminist groups. ... Maybe it’s time we started working towards changing the law here for the sake of our sisters who will be raped in the future. Broadsheet published articles that described some of the overseas groups, such as Elsie Women’s Refuge in Sydney and an American Women Against Rape group. In 1975, a Broadsheet article stated that some groups were considering setting up rape crisis centres in “answer to the growing incidence of this ultimate violation of a woman’s body”.
The first attempts to set up Rape Crisis Centres also occurred in 1974 and 1975, but were largely unsuccessful. The Wellington Women’s Workshop tried setting up a rape crisis phone line in 1974. After one of their group members had been raped, they initially engaged in direct protest by going to the workplace of the male involved and publicly accusing him of rape, and then went on to develop a rape crisis-line service for women. However, this closed within a year. The only other reported attempt was a Rape Crisis group based at the Auckland. Women’s Centre, The Auckland Women’s Centre Newsletter reported that the Rape Crisis group was developing a phone crisis line, putting together information pamphlets for women who had been raped, undertaking a survey to identify the prevalence of unreported sexual violence, as well as going on the popular Brian Edwards television show to make the public aware that rape was a serious crime. However, there were no further written reports about the Auckland Rape Crisis group until 1978.
Activist service organizations had a phenomenal development on New Zealand society. In the years since their inception, the groups have had a wide reaching impact in New Zealand through the delivery of a range of welfare services. In 1998, over fifty Women’s Refuges had provided a total of 115,877 bed nights, 30,232 client contacts in residential services and another 18,618 community service contacts. In addition they answered a total of 146,642 crisis line calls for support, crisis and referral, as well as a total of 5,246 education and training sessions. In 1999, seventeen local Rape Crisis groups provided 4,581 counselling sessions for sexual violence survivors and those related to survivors, as well as 4,254 contacts for information and 380 education/training sessions. In 1997, the Palmerston North Health Collective reported that 4,084 women had contacted their services for information and advice in health matters. In 1996, Women’s Centres around Aotearoa/New Zealand were providing counselling, education, resources and information for women in their local communities. Today, the groups retain threads of continuity with the ideals and practices associated with challenging patriarchy of the second wave women’s liberation movement of the 1970s.